TheReasonIFail

Do you have a Toshiba Windows XP Tablet Edition OEM disc? If so, look for WINNT.SIF in the I386 folder. If it's there, open it with notepad and look for the product key. You should be able to use that key to do a clean install of Windows XP. If not, you should be able to use an app called Jellybean keyfinder on a PC that still has the pre-loaded OEM install.

I was able to put a 3GB ghost image on the WinPE disc itself. Don't include it in the WIM. I put it on the root directory of the DVD.

Have you verified that the BIOS settings in regards to docking are similar on all laptops?

Did you disable any services? What does Event Viewer say?

When you said that you burned another disc for your brother was it an un-nlited version or the same disc as the one he was using before? Have you tried installing Windows from a normal non-edited disc?

As long as you move your mouse all the way to the bottom of the screen, the task bar should pop up. I've never had a problem "missing" the target.

What happens if you type E:\ or whatever letter is given to the USB drive in the run windows and try to browse it that way? When you plug in a USB drive, does Windows bring up the little "What do you want Windows to do?" window? Is this a new install of Windows? Any software recently updated or removed?

I do the exact same thing with our image in terms of editing the default user profile but I've never changed anything in the registry to achieve this. Why is it you're making those changes in the registry? How are you copying the profile? A straight copy of the profile will not work, you'll need to go to the user profile settings under the advanced tab in the "My Computer" properties. Try it again, but this time dont make any changes to the registry.

Hi, At the moment, when imaging of a company PC is complete, updates will download and install but depending on network traffic and time of day, this may take quite awhile to complete. I get a list of approved updates when they are released so I was hoping I could create a script that I can run after imaging that will only install necessary updates from a local folder. I know basic batch file commands but this is out of my field. If there's any information you have that can assist me, I will greatly appreciate it.

I won't be much help with the "ramdisk" option as I extract the PE wim on it's own partition. Is that an option you can try? If so, try this: @ECHO OFF SET CD=**This should be your optical drive with the WinPE disk** SET RECVY=**This should be the drive designated for WinPE** SET REGUID=**572BCD55-FFA7-11D9-AAE0-0007E994107D** BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 %RECVY% IMAGEX /APPLY BOOT.WIM 1 %RECVY% **This applies the image to the parition you have selected for WinPE, so the ramboot option isn't required** MD %RECVY%\BOOT\ XCOPY %CD%\BOOT\*.* /E /F %RECVY%\BOOT\ COPY %CD%\BOOTMGR %RECVY% %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD BCDEDIT -CREATESTORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -create {BOOTMGR} /d "Boot Manager" BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {BOOTMGR} DEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -CREATE {NTLDR} /D "Windows XP" BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} DEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} PATH \ntldr BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} LOCALE EN-US BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -create {%REGUID%} /D "Windows Recovery" -APPLICATION OSLOADER BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} OSDEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} DEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} PATH \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} SYSTEMROOT \Windows BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} WINPE YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} DETECTHAL YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} NX OPTIN BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} CUSTOM:46000010 YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} LOCALE EN-US BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -DEFAULT {NTLDR} BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -DISPLAYORDER {NTLDR} {%REGUID%} BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -TIMEOUT 0 WPEUTIL REBOOT I would initially have the REGUID dynamically created, but I found this REGUID on one of the MS sites and it hasn't given me a problem yet. Also, when ever I add a WinPE partition to a PC, I always add it to the first partition on the disk. I've never tried adding it to the last partition. *Make sure the WinPE partition is marked active. *Make sure you move the WinXP bootfiles (ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini) to the WinPE partition Wrex - I seem to have fixed the problem with sysprep screwing up the BCD, by making the WinPE partition hidden from WinXP.

Two questions: 1. Aren't you offered the option of re-formatting the drive with the same file system? 2. Is the partition you are installing XP on marked as active?

You have two entries for "-DISPLAYORDER", remove one and edit the other to look like this: BCDEDIT -STORE C:\BOOT\BCD -DISPLAYORDER {NTLDR} %REGUID%

Well, I finally got it working! I first set the WinPE partition as being active, creating the BCD and moved the XP boot files to the PE partition. Now sysprep doesn't touch the BCD and we now have a fully functional machine with PE and XP. It never dawned on me that I should move the boot files from the XP partition to the PE partition. Yay! Here is what the new script looks like: @ECHO OFF SET CD=D: SET RECVY=W: SET WINXP=C: SET REGUID=572BCD55-FFA7-11D9-AAE0-0007E994107D REGEDIT -S VDS.REG DISKPART -S PREPART.TXT BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 %RECVY% BOOTSECT.EXE /NT52 %WINXP% IMAGEX /APPLY BOOT.WIM 1 %RECVY% IMAGEX /APPLY WINXPSP3.WIM 1 %WINXP% START /WAIT WSCRIPT WIMHALDETECT.VBS ATTRIB -R -H -S %WINXP%\NTLDR ATTRIB -R -H -S %WINXP%\NTDETECT.COM ATTRIB -R -H -S %WINXP%\BOOT.INI COPY %WINXP%\NTLDR %RECVY%\ COPY %WINXP%\NTDETECT.COM %RECVY%\ COPY %WINXP%\BOOT.INI %RECVY%\ ATTRIB +R +H +S %RECVY%\NTLDR ATTRIB +R +H +S %RECVY%\NTDETECT.COM ATTRIB +R +H +S %RECVY%\BOOT.INI DEL %WINXP%\NTLDR DEL %WINXP%\NTDETECT.COM DEL %WINXP%\BOOT.INI MD %RECVY%\BOOT\ XCOPY %CD%\BOOT\*.* /E /F %RECVY%\BOOT\ COPY %CD%\BOOTMGR %RECVY% DEL %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD BCDEDIT -CREATESTORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -create {BOOTMGR} /d "Boot Manager" BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {BOOTMGR} DEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -CREATE {NTLDR} /D "Windows XP" BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} DEVICE PARTITION=%WINXP% BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} PATH \ntldr BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {NTLDR} LOCALE EN-US BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -create {%REGUID%} /D "Backup and Restore" -APPLICATION OSLOADER BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} OSDEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} DEVICE BOOT BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} PATH \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} SYSTEMROOT \Windows BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} WINPE YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} DETECTHAL YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} NX OPTIN BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} CUSTOM:46000010 YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {%REGUID%} LOCALE EN-US BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -DEFAULT {NTLDR} BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {DEFAULT} RECOVERYSEQUENCE {%REGUID%} BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -SET {DEFAULT} RECOVERYENABLED YES BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -DISPLAYORDER {NTLDR} {%REGUID%} BCDEDIT -STORE %RECVY%\BOOT\BCD -TIMEOUT 2 WPEUTIL REBOOT Instead of manually moving the XP bootfiles, I just added it to the script.

I use the script from the second link supplied by bj-kaiser. That's allowed me to use one WIM image on every machine I've encountered yet. I've used the same image on the several different types of machine models and the only problem I've had was when using the image on the AMD platform, but that's easily resolved by disabling a service or two and you're good to go!

Thanks for the link, I'll be playing with this all this week!

Actually, that was only a loss of 1.5GB.

Are there any differences from the previous one?

Activate.txt just tells diskpart to activate the partition and add the C:\ letter to the drive.

What's the original media you used as the source for your slipstreaming?

Well, the script doesn't choose the HAL, it updates sysprep.inf with whatever HAL is being used on the PC. I have the script set to run after I've loaded the image on the drive using imagex. I have one image for all the PC's I use and it works great for me.

Well, it works great for us here when the base PC is an ACPI PC.

The only way to update "date" via command prompt is by using the following: DATE XX/XX/XXXX Were xx/xx/xxxx is the date you want to use. I don't know of any way to update it automatically.

But if your base image is syspreped using the ACPI HAL, you should be able to update it to any other HAL without a problem.

I don't know about anyone else but I use the following script. It runs after the WIM has been copied to C:\ and updates sysprep.inf with the information for the appropiate HAL. So far it hasn't failed me yet. 'On Error Resume Next Set objWshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") ' Activate the partition Call ActivateDisk() ' Customize the local sysprep.inf file based on the HAL type Call UpdateSysprepinf () ' Done, quit. WScript.Quit Sub ActivateDisk() ' Wait a few seconds, assign drive letter and activate wscript.sleep 5000 cmd = "cmd /c diskpart.exe /s Activate.txt" rc = objWshShell.run(cmd, 6, 1) End Sub Sub UpdateSysprepinf () ' Find out the HAL type sHalType = objWshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\ACPI_HAL\0000\HardwareID") ' Write HAL type to sysprep.inf If sHalType(0) = "acpiapic_up" Then WriteIni "c:\sysprep\sysprep.inf", "Unattended", "UpdateUPHAL", "ACPIAPIC_UP,%WINDIR%\Inf\Hal.inf" ElseIf sHalType(0) = "acpiapic_mp" Then WriteIni "c:\sysprep\sysprep.inf", "Unattended", "UpdateHAL", "ACPIAPIC_MP,%WINDIR%\Inf\Hal.inf" End if End Sub Function ReadIni(file, section, item) ReadIni = "" file = Trim(file) item = Trim(item) Set ini = objFSO.OpenTextFile( file, 1, True) Do While ini.AtEndOfStream = False line = ini.ReadLine line = Trim(line) If LCase(line) = "[" & LCase(section) & "]" Then line = ini.ReadLine line = Trim(line) Do While Left( line, 1) <> "[" 'If InStr( 1, line, item & "=", 1) = 1 Then equalpos = InStr(1, line, "=", 1 ) If equalpos > 0 Then leftstring = Left(line, equalpos - 1 ) leftstring = Trim(leftstring) If LCase(leftstring) = LCase(item) Then ReadIni = Mid( line, equalpos + 1 ) ReadIni = Trim(ReadIni) Exit Do End If End If If ini.AtEndOfStream Then Exit Do line = ini.ReadLine line = Trim(line) Loop Exit Do End If Loop ini.Close End Function Sub WriteIni( file, section, item, myvalue ) in_section = False section_exists = False item_exists = ( ReadIni( file, section, item ) <> "" ) wrote = False file = Trim(file) itemtrimmed = Trim(item) myvalue = Trim(myvalue) temp_ini = objFSO.GetParentFolderName(file) & "\" & objFSO.GetTempName Set read_ini = objFSO.OpenTextFile( file, 1, True, TristateFalse ) Set write_ini = objFSO.CreateTextFile( temp_ini, False) While read_ini.AtEndOfStream = False line = read_ini.ReadLine linetrimmed = Trim(line) If wrote = False Then If LCase(line) = "[" & LCase(section) & "]" Then section_exists = True in_section = True ElseIf InStr( line, "[" ) = 1 Then in_section = False End If End If If in_section Then If item_exists = False Then write_ini.WriteLine line write_ini.WriteLine item & "=" & myvalue wrote = True in_section = False Else equalpos = InStr(1, line, "=", 1 ) If equalpos > 0 Then leftstring = Left(line, equalpos - 1 ) leftstring = Trim(leftstring) If LCase(leftstring) = LCase(item) Then write_ini.WriteLine itemtrimmed & "=" & myvalue wrote = True in_section = False End If End If If Not wrote Then write_ini.WriteLine line End If End If Else write_ini.WriteLine line End If Wend If section_exists = False Then ' section doesn't exist write_ini.WriteLine write_ini.WriteLine "[" & section & "]" write_ini.WriteLine itemtrimmed & "=" & myvalue End If read_ini.Close write_ini.Close If objFSO.FileExists(file) then objFSO.DeleteFile file, True End if objFSO.CopyFile temp_ini, file, true objFSO.DeleteFile temp_ini, True End Sub

How about this? SELECT DISK 0 CLEAN CREATE PART PRI SIZE=14096 SELECT PART 1 ASSIGN LETTER=D: FORMAT FS=FAT32 QUICK CREATE PART PRI SIZE=62220 ACTIVE ASSIGN LETTER=C: FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK EXIT Post: SELECT DISK 0 SELECT PART 1 ATTRIBUTES VOL SET HIDDEN ATTRIBUTES VOL SET NODEFAULTDRIVELETTER SET ID=27